Reply to Why is Math the Super Accelerated Subject?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Does anyone know of any podcasts or opinion pieces on this topic? I find it both fascinating, and, as the parent of a bright kid who loves science but is much more talented in other subjects, frustrating.

I have this in the college section, as we hear again and again kids need to "max rigor" to be competitive for top colleges.

But max rigor in your humanities are freshmen level courses (AP English, APUSH) that any reasonably hard working stem kid could do if they were so motivated. Back in my day, hitting AP Calc AB was the top possible path for 99% of kids in math.  But now, AP Calc BC is the new AB and, there are a ton of kids hitting that level in 11th or even 10th grade.

What's unique about math that makes this possible? And, how does it make sense that to max rigor in math and math alone, you need to be on an accelerated pathway from middle school.

I'm totally a STEM person who graduated high school in the early 90's, so I find this change both fascinating and baffling and wonder what people more plugged in than me have to say about it.

(My kid, on the other hand, is only now coming into her own in math and science. After a rough start, she is loving honors pre calc and AP Bio as a junior. But she will realistically "only" get into AB next year even though she will graduate with a dozen AP's and is planning to apply as a humanities major so she is a competitive candidate)[/quote]

I’m not sure what you find baffling? As smart as your daughter is, others are smarter than her in Math. The difference is that unlike in other subjects we still allow kids to accelerate to the max of their abilities in MS whereas every other subject has been painfully gutted. Likely because progress and ability in math is more objectively provable, and there a much stronger higher ed and economic need to teach math well. Otherwise no doubt about it, we would have a scenario where kids were not allowed to go beyond pre-algebra in MS. [/quote]

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